Such a busy summer....

You can probably tell that I have been busy as I have been very slack in writing this diary of late, there has been so much to do, so many visitors to meet and so much corn to enjoy... it seems to be over now (the rain has started and the gardens have been much quieter this week with the return to school of many of our playmates).

Here is a bit of a record of what has been going on since I last wrote....

The Norbury Theatre were here performing The Merry Wives of Windsor at the end of July.  Fortunately the Jinney Ring has a garden marquee because it did rain during the performance on Saturday night - not just a little bit but a lot.  The actors did really well raising their voices above the sound of the rain and the visitors were even better going down the garden in all that wet after they had been warm and wet fed in the restaurant!  Everyone seemed to have a great time and the play was a huge hit for both the Saturday evening and the Sunday matinee.

A real farce!

 Next up we a corporate sports day and BBQ in the gardens - watching them do three legged races, egg and spoon races in our fields after enjoying a lovely BBQ did make us quack!

The now familiar sights and sounds of the Blues and Beer tents going up for the 5th festival in the gardens caused us to loose some sleep but we did enjoy the bands very much.  This year it was a weekend festival with the big bands on Saturday and a couple of excellent local bands on Sunday as well as the winners of the W-Factor competition.  Lots of beer, plenty of people and also a lot of dogs (all very well behaved though).  The weather was unusually kind and it stayed dry so everyone seemed pretty happy and all the beer was drunk.

 

Boperator

Stomp and Holler!

Robert Hokum

Too Tired!

Between bands

BBQ - Big Ron cooking the chicken!

Sunday - W-Factor winners on stage

This is going to be far to long a catch up so am stopping here and will catch up again tomorrow!

So much to tell....such a lot of animals too!

It has been a couple of weeks since I have had a chance to catch my breath and think about everything that has happened and is still to happen...what a whirl!  Here is some of it...

Hagley Primary incubated ducklings

Out in the garden we have has some new duckling introduced - they were incubated by Hagley Primary school.  what we find is that the earlier eggs are incubated from here the higher the hatch rate, so they were delighted that they got 4 lovely little ducklings - 3 white (or yellow at this point) and 1 mixed (might have some appleyard in it).  The Children named the ducklings Aggi, Goldfinger, Sunny and Andy (after Andy Murray!).  They kept them for a week or so but as they were getting ready for holidays they soon came here to be looked after.  Unfortunately Sunny (laying down in picture) had something not quite right in his chest and he did not develop properly, we gave him the best life we could but he died in his sleep one night.  The others are all really well and are always hungry.  The children have made them really tame too!

 We had a brilliant turn out in the gardens for a lot of very different animals on 21st July - the fund raiser for the Cinnamon trust was a great day - here are a couple of photos - there are a lot more on our Facebook Album .

We had Ferrets, Alpacas, lots of dogs who went in for the novelty dog show, tried the agility course and some even ran the scurry. There were guide dogs, cat protection, birds of prey (we kept out of their way!) and lots more.  It was great fun and the day raised over £2,000 for the charity (which aims to keep people with their pets for as long as possible by supporting them when they are ill or incapacitated).

Also 2 weeks ago we had a really beautiful country wedding party in the garden.  We have known Jenna dna Ross for a while now and were delighted that they shared their special day with us.  They had a small wedding party of close friends and family to their picnic style meal in the garden marquee next to the bottom pond.  Jenna had done a lot of work making the whole thing look lovely and very 'country'.  She also made a Piñata for the children which contained sweets.

A play area for the children with Piñata

Beautifully decorated with bunting all home made!

The whole thing was beautiful including the weather, the bride and groom looked wonderful too.  After the afternoon party they moved into the restaurant for an evening party with more friends arriving.

Jenna and Ross arrive

I am finishing with another bird story - this time pigeons!  On the night of the wedding we had a racing pigeon drop in - he/she looked exhausted and hungry so we gave it some of our corn.  We could not quite see the tag properly but we think it is going to Italy.  It stayed for over a week before moving on - we are not convinced it will win the race with this length of stop over but who knows!  A day after it left we had another one stop over for 2 days too - we think we have got onto a new website - 'Pigestops' -- we are already on one called Britstops which is for humans with motor homes (they are great visitors!) 

Pige 1

Sneaking a peek...and 110 years

A hectic and fun weekend in the garden again this week - the weather is certainly making live more entertaining for us with lots and lots of visitors as well as some parties too.

This weekend we had a 60th party in the restaurant with neighbour Sue coming to celebrate with us in style. Sue chose a traditional English salad/picnic menu including a welcome drink of Cider punch.  The party was in the conservatory so we could see the proceeding including some great dancing later on - the music was great and everyone in the party mood!

In the garden marquee there was another party going on celebrating Bobbi's 50th birthday - so we celebrated 110 years all in one night - not bad.  The marquee party also enjoyed the English menu - it worked so well on a very warm night!  As the daylight ended so the candles were lit and the whole ambiance was pretty chilled out quite special.  We had a peek in but someone spotted us too

Sneaking a peek!

Enjoying the warm evening in the marquee

 
Sunday, the fun continued with another party in the gardens, this time to celebrate a very young life - this was a christening party for Jacob.  The Christening had been at Hanbury church so we heard the bells ring for him before they came down for food and fun.

While the staff were working in the gardens we managed to catch up with the news a bit, here are a couple tidbits:

Gina - one of the Chefs reporting seeing some of my colleagues holidaying in Zante - swimming in the sea would you believe it...they did not need to go so far for the good weather this year.

Mallards - Just about to play volley ball in Zante?

Caroline - has just been skydiving - we white ducks don't fly, so we can't image what possessed her - but she has raised money for charity so she is not completely mad... Bravo!

I'd be quacking too at this point!

Caroline - normally in a green shirt at JR

Sam - who supervises in the restaurant and runs a lot of the events front of house has just come back to work after two weeks off when she cracked her ribs -- she was not skydiving - just slipped in the shower - she clearly needs feet like mine!

More fame.... and more friends!

This week we had yet more TV cameras in the Centre and we ducks got filmed yet again - the fame is quite going to our heads now!  This time it was the BBC with a team from "Escape to the Country" .  A couple were being shown some properties in Worcestershire and the Jinney Ring was being filmed as a place to visit and get involved in craft activities.  There was some filming in the restaurant with the regular painting group 'The Art Circle' and also quite a lot with in the woodwork craft unit where they make the Jigsaw trees.  Great fun, and at least we ducks were not expected to re-shoot our scenes, unlike the humans - after all we professionals are word perfect - quack, quack!!

The lovely weather has brought lots of extra visitors to the garden and also we have some new friends in the field....

Wally

Foal

The new additions are firstly Wally - a beautiful bay chap who has not stopped eating since he got here - he could not believe his luck when he saw our grass!  The Foal is only a year old and is equally partial to his grass.  When they first arrived they charged around the field with the resident herd of cows following on behind - we wondered what all the fuss was about but it was sheer exuberance!

The horses are here for the summer and it is good to see them.

Birds of a different feather!

It is positively 'raucous' in the garden at the moment with the, now young adult, ducklings demanding food of everyone that comes into the garden - they have no manners at all and seem to think humans are just here to feed them!  The worrying thing is that there are more little ones coming through, some 'teenagers' on the water pen and now some new ducklings in the pen (above).  The ones above are 'interlopers' as they are new breeds, 3 'magpie' ducks (as their name suggests these will be black and white when fully grown) and 3 Cayuga ducks which will be blackish green.   There are two white ones keeping them company too and one of these seems to have a crest, which is great!  Four of these ducklings where incubated and hatched by the reception class at Hanbury School - they do a very good job and the children do love them so.

Sadly the little duckling with the bad feet (in the last entry) did not make it, he was doing well but fell over backwards in the night and could not right himself so got too cold, we were very sad about this but hopefully we have learnt a thing or too about fixing feet.

The Centre and garden have been pretty busy this week, lots of new visitors too.  Today there was a chocolate party going on, and in the week the Pottery had a Raku firing evening for their class, this is done in outside in a big dustbin, all pretty exciting!

One bit of very sad news though, we heard that Mary, one of the regular amateur artists from the Thursday Art Circle has just passed away - we will miss her very much.  

The Art Circle are going to be on TV soon - we have the team from Escape from the Country filming here on Tuesday and they have been asked to be in the background.  I expect we will see them out in the gardens too - especially my crested friend who is so photogenic!

A bit of a catchup - some happy some sad!

We have been a bit lax on the quacking front in the last couple of weeks, so this is by way of a catch up of what has been going on....

Firstly Joanne and Phil - a lovely small wedding in our own garden marquee.  This lovely couple have been visiting us regularly in the gardens for sometime now so we feel that they are family now.  They decided to make sure that their wedding day would be intimate and memorable, they had only close friends and family to the wedding and decided that the gardens here were worth the weather risk -- and it paid off.  The day was super with sunshine all day.  They arrived to the sounds of the live string trio playing in their own private area and small marquee.  It was all idyllic!

Phil and Joanne - On the Swing seat next to the Jinney Ring itself

 Food was served in the marquee form their own menu and the cake was especially made to their specifications.

JR Garden Marquee was just right for a small wedding.

BMW wedding car - had been in the paint shop!

Next up we had the first of two, now well established, pudding nights - this was very well attended and looking through the window everyone looked very happy indeed with the menu - unfortunately none for us!

News of the pond is a bit mixed --- We have another couple of broods of ducklings in the pen, one lot are now out on the pond with the newest ones still under the light to keep them warm.  Of the newest ones there are some speciality breeds, including a Magpie duck and a Cayuga.  We also hear that there are more to join them next week as Hanbury School have hatched some successfully too.  One little duck out of this hatch is a bit disabled and has been hatched with curled toes - (s)he has not made it to the garden yet as they are trying to straighten the toes so that he can walk (he is wearing cardboard shoes at the moment, not sure if it will work yet though!).  

The really sad news is that the big Pekin duck (Jim) has died this weekend - he has not been right since the fox attacked him a few weeks ago - it had already made away with his mate, so he was also lonely, we think. We think we have some of his offspring in the new batches of ducklings so he has left a legacy, but we are all very sad!

We also witnessed something else amiss this week - the Craft Centre sit on mower was stolen right from under our noses in the middle of the night, sadly we could not raise the alarm to get the humans to stop it.  The mower was wheeled up the field alongside the gardens and taken through the footpath gate - disgraceful behaviour, if we could have pecked their eyes out I would have done!  These are people who are not welcome to the gardens ever.  

In the field we have another 6 cows, they seem younger and are being shown the ropes by the others, this is well worth watching.  Talking of worth watching - The Jinney Ring, featuring yours truly and my duck colleagues were on TV again last week C4 "Compare Your Life" http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od/catchup/date/2013/06/13/ -- it is never dull here!

Wedding, Pippins and Weather

Summer is always such a great time here in the gardens, we see so much going on and love the activity.

In the last couple of weeks it has been particularly busy with a big wedding on Bank Holiday Sunday and then a charity day on the Monday.

Rachel and Shane and their families have been visiting us a for while now and planning their marquee wedding.  In the two weeks leading up to the big day we were getting a bit concerned about the weather but crossing our webbed feet seemed to have worked and the day was gorgeous (but walking was hard!).

Shane, Rachel and Rachel's parent caught in between formal shots - Mum is never off guard though!

The bridal party arrived at about 4pm in two fantastic cars A Rolls Royce Phantom and Jaguar, (they had been married in their local church in Dudley).    Local Flutists - "Champagne Flutes" played beautifully outside in the gardens during their welcome drinks and canapes.There was also a chap drawing cartoon pictures of the guests - everyone seemed to like them too. They moved inside for dinner at about 6 o clock.  The sun was going down and was shinning into the marquee which was opened up so we could see the proceedings nicely - all very civilized with some lovely speeches at the end. Cake cutting and dancing followed

Champagne Flutes

It was a lovely day and better still they did not forget us - all of the bridesmaids had duck food for favours - so we got our wedding breakfast too!

Not quite as good as wedding cake but still appreciated!

The following day we had a lot more visitors - the local nursery Pippins (one of the JR charities for 2013) ran a fun day called "Laugh with Pippins" .  Magic Russ came along and did a great show for the kids, there were pony rides, bouncy castle and all sorts of garden games.  In the evening the laughing continued to comic Mick Martin, however this was not as well attended as the organizers had hoped.  

Half term followed and the rain came - by the time we saw the children that week they were a bit stir crazy and needed to run about --- we stayed on the water, until they brought out the corn!